The purpose of this research would be to study carefully an existing set of data, already cleaned and on tape, that will shed light on both pre- and postpartum differences between a set of 20 primiparas who underwent Caesarean section and another set of 100 primiparas delivered vaginally. All 120 women (and 60 of their husbands) were followed prospectively from the sixth month of pregnancy to the time when the infant was one year old. At the outset of data collection there were no known differences between the groups and the data were collected for another purpose (studying the sociopsychological dynamics of early family formation). Preliminary analyses suggest many differences in the early prepartum period- sectioned mothers take longer to recover, are more depressed, their babies cry more, both they and their husbands have a negative view of the birth event, and it takes longer for them to assume the parent role. The one-year postpartum data have yet to be studied. By using structural equation models, the data could be used to test a number of causal hypotheses which preliminary analysis suggests are plausible, for example, that the quality of mother's parenting and/or father's parenting is affected by delivery mode and possibly why. There is evidence that parents' early contact with the neonate is far less for the sectioned group and we have hourly data on contact over the first 3 days. At any rate the data cover a large variety of topics in depth and offer a unique resource for a careful study of the consequences upon mother, father, and child of C-section delivery. With section rates skyrocketing, the importance of a careful study of this sort is hard to overrate.